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APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUSLY AND AUTOMATICALLY PACKAGING INDIVIDUAL ARTICLES IN SEPARATE FINITE SEGMENTS OF A FORMED TUBULAR SHEET-LIKE WRAPPING MATERIAL, SAID APPARATUS COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION: MOTOR MEANS AND COOPERATING BELT MEANS FOR DRIVING SAID APPARATUS; A WEB OF SAID WRAPPING MATERIAL ADAPTED TO MOVE IN A GENERALLY LENGTHWISE DIRECTION; POSITIONING MEANS FOR PLACING SAID ARTICLES AT PREDETERMINED REGULARLY SPACED INTERVALS ON SAID LENGTHWISE MOVING WEB; FORMING MEANS FOR CONTINUOUSLY SHAPING SAID MOVING WEB TO DEFINE AN ELONGATED GENERALLY TUBULAR BODY; LINEARLY ADVANCING GRIPPING MEANS OPERABLE TO GRASP AND HOLD SAID ARTICLES THROUGH SAID WEB AND COMPRISING MEANS GRIPPING AND PULLING SAID WEB FORWARDLY AS SAID ARTICLES MOVE WITH SAID WEB; WEB CUTTING MEANS POSITIONED FORWARDLY OF AT LEAST ONE OF SAID GRIPPING MEANS FOR SEVERING SAID MOVING TUBULAR BODY BETWEEN ARTICLE CONTAINING PORTIONS THEREOF TO PROVIDE FINITE SEGMENTS OF SAID TUBULAR BODY, EACH SAID SEGMENTS CONTAINING AN ARTICLE TO BE WRAPPED; ROTATING MEANS FOR POSITIONING EACH SAID SEGMENTS TO PRESENT OPPOSED ENDS OF SAID SEGMENTS FOR SUBSEQUENT TWISTING OPERATIONS; MEANS FOR GRIPPING AND TWISTING EACH SAID SEGMENTS AT SAID OPPOSED ENDS THEREOF TO PROVIDE INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED ARTICLES; AND MEANS POSITIVELY INTERCOUPLING SAID WEB, SAID ARTICLE GRIPPING MEANS, SAID MEANS GRIPPING SAID WEB AND SAID GRIPPING AND TWISTING MEANS IN MECHANICALLY KEYED AND LOCKED SYNCHRONIZATION AT IDENTICAL LINEAR SPEEDS AND DRIVING SAID WEB CUTTING MEANS IN SYNCHRONIZATION WITH LINEAR MOVEMENT OF SAID MOVING WEB; WHEREBY ALL LINEARLY ADVANCING ELEMENTS OF SAID APPARATUS ARE MAINTAINED IN PREDETERMINED FIXED RELATIVE POSITIONS IN ABSOLUTE AND LOCKED SYNCHRONIZATION, AND WHEREBY SAID SYNCHRONIZATION IS AUTOMATICALLY MAINTAINED IRRESPECTIVE OF CHANGES IN SPEED OF SAID DRIVE MEANS AND SAID LINEARLY ADVANCING ELEMENTS.